My own war game

Chapter 245: Ichiki Detachment Appears

August 1942, 8, Pacific Ocean.

Six Yanyang-class destroyers were lined up and heading towards the Solomon Islands. From time to time, soldiers in army uniforms stood on the deck and pointed into the distance, like a group of country bumpkins who had just entered the city, while the navy soldiers operating the ships did not say anything.

This situation is very rare between the Japanese navy and army, which are at loggerheads, because this operation was the army helping the navy.

On one side of the Tokitsukaze destroyer, there was a figure in a colonel's uniform constantly looking into the distance. That was the commander of this unit, Kiyonao Ikki.

Colonel Ikki is now in high spirits and feels that the peak of his military career is about to come.

As a non-commissioned officer in a military academy, it was difficult for Kiyonao Ikki to be promoted to a high-ranking official. The rank of major was normally the top of his military career. However, the North China Incident gave him an opportunity. He was the main officer who bombarded the Wanping City in the middle under the pretext of the loss of soldiers. After that, he was appreciated by the headquarters and was quickly promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Afterwards, Ikki broke the unspoken rule that "only graduates from senior military academies can serve as senior officers" and became a colonel. In 1941, he officially became a regiment commander of the th Division of the Kwantung Army.

Human ambitions are always growing. The rank of colonel and the position of regiment commander, which he had never dared to think about in the past, can no longer satisfy Xiao Yimu from Shizuoka Prefecture. In the past two years, he has been frantically looking for an opportunity to add the word "Sir" before others address him.

In the previous Battle of Midway, Ikki and his detachment were excitedly preparing to land on the island to make achievements, but unfortunately the Combined Fleet was defeated miserably, the landing operation was cancelled, and Ikki Kiyonao did not get the opportunity to make achievements he expected.

But now the opportunity has come again. There is an airport on Guadalcanal waiting for him and his soldiers to fight for it. The navy octopuses bow their heads and ask the army for help. As long as he completes the task successfully, the day when he will be called Your Excellency will be just around the corner.

Good news came one after another. First, the Japanese Navy won a great victory in the Battle of Savo Island. The US naval forces that landed on the island were all withdrawn within three days, and the US troops on the island became isolated.

According to intelligence provided by reconnaissance aircraft, the U.S. military only unloaded supplies on the beach for two days. According to the calculation of the headquarters staff, this amount of supplies was far from enough for 1 people. It is very likely that when the fleet left, the U.S. military withdrew most of the supplies with the ships, and the remaining people suffered a disastrous defeat and had low morale.

According to the Army's estimates, there were no more than 2000 to 3000 Americans on Guadalcanal at that time, which was a good opportunity to establish military honors.

This "first prize" "happened" to be picked up by Ikki Aonao, who was thinking about promotion every day.

The Ikki Detachment was a smaller team, but it also had around 2,700 to 2,800 people. The navy's old transport ships were too slow to reach Guadalcanal before the end of the month. Colonel Ikki was eager to fight, so he ordered the navy to send out several destroyers to take on an advance team of less than a thousand people, intending to land on the island as soon as possible to establish their achievements.

What if I go too late and all the American animals run away?
However, the action, which seemed reckless to outsiders, did have the effect of catching the enemy off guard to a certain extent. Major General Vandergrift really did not expect the Japanese to come so quickly.

"Just now our search team encountered the newly landed Japanese in the woods. Five of them escaped and the rest were killed. Unfortunately, there were no prisoners." Colonel Edson walked into the tent clutching a Thompson submachine gun, and then threw a Japanese military cap on the ground.

"Could it be the remnants of the Japanese army that escaped into the woods earlier?" Someone expressed a different opinion, saying that some Japanese soldiers did escape in the previous battle.

"No, the style of this military cap is different from the previous ones. There must be new Japanese troops landing on the island." Major General Vandergrift said, picking up the military cap on the ground.

"Everyone be on alert! Send out search posts in the direction where the Japanese may land! Set up a circular defense line along the airport! Use all the barbed wire!" The major general immediately issued a series of orders.

Although the recruits of the First Division were complete novices in attacking strongholds, earthwork was the subject they were most exposed to in the training camp. Machine gun positions and hiding pits were quickly built around the airport and along the river. Barbed wire was also wrapped around the area without spending any money. "Hey, man, don't you feel like you're missing something?" A soldier who was bending the wire in his hand with a tool turned around and asked his companion.

Another soldier hung something that could make sounds on the wire mesh nearby, scratched his head and replied, "Is it because I feel something is missing? But I can't remember it... Oh, by the way, where are all those black-hearted commodity dealers?!"

"Hello! Sirs, would you like anything?" As soon as the words were spoken, a short man speaking English with an Osaka accent came up.

"Watanabe, do you have any cigarettes? I'm out of mine." A soldier saw the Japanese vendor approaching and began to search his pockets.

"Hey! Here we have some, three yuan a pack." The guy named Watanabe took out a pack of Camel cigarettes.

"Damn it, this is vampire behavior, Camel cigarettes are only 15 cents normally!" the soldier cursed in protest.

"I'm very sorry, the inventory is tight and the price is set by Chief Iikuni. I can't make the decision." Watanabe kept bowing but didn't mention any price reduction.

The soldier emptied his pockets and only found a little more than one dollar - during this period, the cash flow in the hands of these guys had been almost sucked away by Fan Guo and his gang.

Seeing the disappointment on the soldier's face, Watanabe took out half a pack of loose Camel cigarettes from his pocket.

"Sir, this is available for retail sale."

In the end, the soldier couldn't resist the temptation of tobacco and gave all the remaining change in his hand to Watanabe.

"Watanabe, do you have any soda? Bring two bottles over later. Jason, this is my treat." Another soldier who had a little more money also took out some money.

"I'm very sorry, but I can't come today. Commander Iikuni has an important combat mission to deliver this afternoon." Watanabe put the money in his pocket, took out a cigarette as a gift, bowed and left.

The two soldiers looked at each other and one of them said, "So these guys can fight besides being peddlers?"

In the distance, when Major General Vandergrift was patrolling the camp, he found that the soldiers of the "New Japan National Construction Army" had changed their previous mercenary appearance and began to prepare weapons under the coercion of Kojiro, and all of them were in a state of combat readiness.

Taisho 11-year machine guns, individual grenade launchers, Type rifles, anti-personnel mines...there are even two captured Type infantry guns in the corner.

These new Japanese founding army soldiers dug out all the treasures in their closets and gathered together to clean their weapons.

"This is the first official battle of our new Japanese founding army, and the first battle to break with militarism. Only victory can bring a bright future to Japan! Whoever is afraid of fighting and runs away will be punished by military law!" Iikuni Kojiro shouted murderously.

(End of this chapter)